The Foundation for International Development Study and Research (Ferdi), was created in 2003 on the initiative of the Cerdi (University of Auvergne and CNRS). Its purpose is to promote a fuller understanding of international economic development and the factors that influence it.

It supports research activities that make use of the most modern and most directly relevant instruments of economics to study development, and seeks to strengthen the potential of the French-speaking world in this area.

It endeavours to promote the contribution of French and European work to international debate on major development issues, in particular on what Southern and Northern economic policies are best able to assist development by broadening capacity for individual choice and developing equality of opportunity among nations.